New partnership between Japanese and British companies works to broaden the industry.
Itochu Corp, a company that has set its sights on becoming the most profitable trading house in Japan aside from the mineral resources industry, has announced the latest insurance news of a new alliance with Antares Managing Agency Ltd. from the United Kingdom, in order to broaden the insurance industry.
The alliance represents a number of important firsts within the industry in Japan.
The partnership with Antares, which is based in London, with Itochu, will represent the first time that a non-financial company in Japan will be underwriting risk in the largest insurance market in the world, Lloyd’s of London. This, according to an insurance news statement that was just released by the company, based in Tokyo.
The insurance statement also said that Itochu would be offering reinsurance services.
According to the Itochu insurance news statement, “Through the alliance with Antares, Itochu will acquire insurance underwriting techniques as well as know-how and expertise in sales, facilitating the full launch and expansion of its insurance underwriting business.”
The CEO of Itochu, Masahiro Okafuji declared, last year, that it was his intention to make the profit of the trading house less depending on the sale of mineral resources such as coal and iron ore, or of energy, as the industrial growth of China starts to ease off.
In September, Itochu attempted to purchase the packaged food and Asian fresh produce units at Dole Food Co. (DOLE) for $1.69 billion. It also earned a profit of 35 percent from the sale of its metal and energy sales within the third quarter of 2012, which closed on September 30.
Now Itochu is working to make insurance news with the expansion of that industry through underwriting within the highly respected and massive Lloyd’s of London marketplace. This first is hoped to help to propel the company forward in order to be able to bring it closer to the goals of its CEO so that it can reestablish itself outside of the mineral resources environment and step in through a number of other doors with a high potential for profitability.
